This excellent violin was made by Hieronymus Amati around 1719, which shows a beautiful flat grand pattern of its own. It was long loved and played by Vasko Vassilev, who is the first solo concert master of Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and was the concert master at the coronation ceremony of King Charles III. Its value is extremely highly recognized.
Hieronymus Amati II was born to the first son of Nicolo Amati in 1649, and became Nicolo’s apprentice and successor afterwards.
Nicolo Amati was successful as so-called Father of Cremonese violin-making art, followed by celebrated violin makers for generations: Francesco Ruggeri, Andrea Guarneri, Antonio Stradivari and so on. His contribution to violin-making art was so great that it was not limited in Cremona but developed in other cities.
Hieronymus’s gift as a violin maker was recognized as early as in 1670. After his father Nicolo passed away, he took over the atelier in 1684. In spite of his energetic work, he could not help but face financial difficulty in 1697 and moved to Piacenza.
18 years later, he came back to Cremona to restart violin-making. However, he did not take in any apprentice, so violin-making by the Amatis was ended with his death in 1740.
In Cremona of the latter half of the 17th century, there were so many skillful competitors, one of whom was Stradivari, that it was not a straight road to reach a success like his father did. However, he was very skillful and his artwork is as highly reputed as that of Stradivari’s golden period.
He recognized good characteristics of Stradivari of his identical generation, and slightly lowered his father Nicolo’s high arch pattern to create a relatively flat and rich arch with a sudden slope, resulting in artwork meeting demand for high-level performance.
This violin was made around 1719, when he moved from Piacenza back to Cremona to engage in violin-makingagain. It is as if characteristics of his father Nicolo and Stradivari merged. Its arch is flat but feeling somewhat three-demensional and rich. Clad in vigorous feeling, deep red-brown varnish, it produces deep, silky and body feeling sound, and quick clear-cut feeling response.